Sinclair debunks its own pro-fossil fuel talking points, then repeats them anyway
Written by Zachary Pleat
Published
After weeks of Sinclair Broadcast Group TV programming that pushed pro-fossil fuel propaganda and attacked renewable energy, a fact check by the nighttime edition of The National Desk debunked some of those talking points. But during the next broadcast of the program’s morning edition, the Sinclair anchor and her guest repeated those same false talking points anyway.
On March 4, Sinclair’s nighttime National Desk aired a fact-check segment about recent public debate over high gas prices. During the segment, a Sinclair investigative producer explained that “American oil suppliers aren't eager to ramp up supply” and that they're seeing huge profits. She also explained that even if the fossil fuel companies did start immediately drilling new oil wells, “it could take anywhere from months to years for that oil to start flowing,” meaning it is not a solution for today’s high gas prices.
Citation From the March 4, 2022, nighttime edition of Sinclair Broadcast Group's The National Desk
MEAGAN O’HALLORAN (ANCHOR): There are bipartisan calls continuing tonight for the U.S. to stop importing Russian oil and curb current policies. Our fact-check team is getting to the truth of the matter when it comes to the country's energy sector.
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JANAE BOWENS (INVESTIGATIVE PRODUCER): And we're seeing crude oil as high as $115 per barrel, and on average you’ll pay about $3.84 for a regular gallon of gas. This means profits for oil and gas producers, and we dug into Exxon and Chevron stock numbers; Exxon's stock coming in at $84, that's up nearly $25 over the past year. Chevron is up too, coming in at just under $159.
Now, American oil suppliers aren't eager to ramp up supply. There's a labor and equipment shortage, which slows down production. Companies are also cautious about investing too much because of the COVID-19 pandemic’s oil bust. When folks were stuck inside, the oil market saw negative pricing, and investors are hesitant to put more money in fossil fuel stocks, in some cases blaming the administration's policies. Now, experts say even if these companies start drilling more oil wells today, it could take anywhere from months to years for that oil to start flowing.
Even though Sinclair finally acknowledged that starting new drilling for oil in the U.S. won’t affect gas prices in the near future (after last month’s coverage that pushed for new drilling for this same false reason), the very next morning edition of The National Desk returned to advocating for more oil drilling to reduce gas prices. During this segment, anchor Jan Jeffcoat and Alfredo Ortiz of the right-wing corporate lobbying group Job Creators Network also pushed the myth of “complete energy independence” and made intentionally vague allegations that Biden administration policies were slowing the production of oil in America.
Citation From the March 7, 2022, morning edition of Sinclair Broadcast Group's The National Desk
JAN JEFFCOAT (ANCHOR): The cost of energy is expected to continue soaring with the Russian invasion. And now one group who represents millions of small businesses across the country has a message to President Biden when it comes to how all that will impact all of us here at home. The Job Creators Network placed this billboard in Times Square, arguing the solution is not that complex, demanding President Joe Biden say “nyet” to Russian oil and drill more here in the U.S.
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ALFREDO ORTIZ (PRESIDENT AND CEO, JOB CREATORS NETWORK): Our first push is to -- let's go ahead and open up our domestic production here, and let’s reverse course, a very, very horrible agenda that President Biden set us on from day one of his administration.
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JEFFCOAT: Many Americans saying if we were energy independent we wouldn't have given this a second thought, because we wouldn't have to rely on Russia for oil to keep the cost down. Give me your thoughts.
ORTIZ: That’s exactly right, Jan, that's our position as well. I mean, if we had just really kept to where we were in terms of energy independence -- I mean, I think just last month it was declared by the Energy Information Administration that we are now a net exporter, excuse me, net importer of oil overall. And it's crazy to think, Jan, that just a year ago we had complete energy independence. So, look, it makes it tough because we bring in about 8%, roughly, of our oil production is Russia oil, but we're talking then about $25-30 million per day right now that is basically being shipped to Russia which is funding the Ukrainian – the war against Ukraine. I mean, so, not only is this bad domestic policy, but absolutely bad foreign policy.
Now, of course the Europeans have got themselves a little bit of a pinch here, Jan, because with 40% of their imports coming from Russia, I'm not sure if they're going to be rushing to our side to also ban imports. But we're glad to see that Canada did up north, our neighbors up north, they've already done that. It's time for us to do this, Jan, and time for us to turn to domestic production here.
JEFFCOAT: And you’ve called President Biden to reject the left’s Green New Deal proposal and increase drilling here in the states. Tell us how different life would be if the U.S. took the steps to become more energy independent, like we were just a short one-and-a-half years ago.
ORTIZ: Yeah, well fortunately, Jan, I don't really have to really make people imagine things. So we were just there just over a year ago before the Biden administration took over. Energy independence for us was not only a nice phrase, it was truly great domestic and foreign policy, because it gave us an opportunity to really focus on growing this economy, keeping inflation in check, keeping jobs rolling. While now with this Green New Deal agenda, we’ve now realized that this has only turned out to be a bad deal agenda for the American public. And so that is why we are urging for President Biden to reverse course on his domestic policy and allow for energy production to kick back in high gear in this country, in particular our oil production. So that's why we're saying, you know, drill more, pay less. It's just that easy, Joe.
No, it’s not just that easy, Alfredo, for the reasons explained by the earlier Sinclair report. But Ortiz and Jeffcoat misled their audience about several other things as well.
First of all, last month’s EIA report that Ortiz referenced when he said the U.S. is now a “net importer of oil overall” explained that the U.S. had became a net exporter of oil only in 2020 -- prior to that, we were importing more, but other oil-exporting nations decreased their production because of the huge drop in demand during the pandemic. It also explained that the U.S. is already on track to increase oil production “to an all-time high” next year, without any new policy changes:
Historically, the United States has been a net importer of petroleum. During 2020, COVID-19 mitigation efforts caused a drop in oil demand within the United States and internationally. International petroleum prices decreased in response to less consumption, which diminished incentives for key petroleum-exporting countries to increase production. This shift allowed the United States to export more petroleum in 2020 than it had in the past.
Also in 2020, the difference between U.S. crude oil imports and exports fell to its lowest point since at least 1985. Net crude oil imports subsequently rose by 19% in 2021 to an average of 3.2 million barrels per day (b/d) as crude oil consumption increased in response to rising economic activity. We forecast that the United States will continue to import more crude oil than it exports in 2022, reaching an estimated annual average of 3.9 million b/d. However, we expect net imports to fall to 3.4 million b/d in 2023 as domestic crude oil production increases to an all-time high of 12.6 million b/d.
Ortiz also failed to specify which Biden policies he is claiming are holding up more oil production -- which is another false claim, given that oil production actually rose last year compared to Donald Trump’s final year in office, and the Biden administration has so far issued drilling permits on public lands at even higher rates than Trump did. Along with the previous Sinclair fact check explaining the supply issues, a June fact check from USA Today explained that Biden’s policies on oil production are having no negative effect on our current gas prices:
Many critics point to Biden's decision on the Keystone XL pipeline as fueling the gas price spike, but experts say there's no such connection.
The extension of the Keystone pipeline, first proposed in 2008 by TC Energy based in Calgary, Canada, was rejected by former President Barack Obama in November 2015 but later approved by Trump in March 2017 . Biden then suspended the project in January. And on June 9, TC Energy announced it was terminating the project.
Even if construction wasn't halted, the Keystone XL pipeline wasn't in operation and therefore wouldn't have an impact on current gas prices, said Finley of Rice University.
“That was something that would impact down the road," he said.
David Dismukes, economist and executive director of [Louisiana] State University's Center for Energy Studies, agreed, telling USA TODAY the pipeline would have had a “longer-run impact in providing a diversity of supply for refineries in the Gulf Coast."
Similarly, other energy policies rolled out by President Biden, such as postponing oil lease sales, have a long-term, but not short-term, effect.
“If you look at some of the actions taken by the administration with regard to offshore drilling, drilling on federal lands, the outlook for fossil fuel energies in general, those are impacting the price of crude and expectations about crude oil," said Diskmukes. “(Biden's policies do) have an impact, but that's not what you're seeing at the pump right now."
The March 7 Sinclair segment also claimed the U.S. was “energy independent” and didn’t have to rely on Russian oil in 2020, neither of which are true. The idea of “energy independence” often suggested by proponents of increased domestic fossil fuel production is a complete myth. In fact, the U.S. was still importing nearly as much oil as it exported in 2020 -- and Russian oil accounted for nearly 7% of U.S. imports that year.
Besides all the lies told by Jeffcoat and Ortiz, their fantasy of 2020 as a golden age of cheap gas prices was, in reality, a terrible nightmare. As Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) aptly put it:
This is not the first time that Sinclair coverage has called out misinformation pushed by its own employees, and it likely won’t be the last. Sinclair’s conservative misinformers really should find accurate talking points that won’t be debunked by a two-minute segment from its night crew.